The Big Swap - Part 24

~THIRTY FOUR~

I've been thinking over this note for WEEKS to be very honest and even then; didn't quite know how to begin it. So, let's keep it classic?

A very, very Happy Birthday Vedant.

(I seriously need to come up with some nice and original nickname for you because I calling you Vedant sounds about as general as any other.)

Anyway, along with that birthday wish; imagine me scooting towards you and basically hugging the living daylights out of you. Maybe even delivering one of my classics, wet kisses that you absolutely loathe.

Vedant grinned. Whenever Meera would feel affectionate, she would always deliver these wet, sloppy kisses on Vedant. He would always scrunch up his nose in disgust, pretending to have hated it. But only he knew how much he loved those unplanned, impromptu moments they shared.

You're smiling right now aren't you?

At this, he laughed and rolled his eyes at the Universe. "I'm not!" he said out loud to nobody in particular.

Now now Vedant. Lying to your one and only girlfriend isn't signs of a very rational guy you know that?

I'm sighing right now. I want to see that smile of yours so bad.

He stopped, and felt a lump near his throat.

I haven't had it in me to ever touch this discussion that has always been so sensitive for the two of us. But now that I am writing, and I know you will not flip the next second, I'm going to write down my views on this subject.

I...I love you Vedant. You know that.

You also know that living apart wasn't exactly something I chose with a one hundred percent willingness. But this is life, isn't it?

Whenever you sulk about my absence, I end up questioning my decision. I feel like somewhere, somehow, I've cheated on you. And then when I sit down to rationalize I realize, it's YOU I'm talking about. If there's ANYONE in this whole, entire world who understands me and knows me inside out, it is you Vedant. And I know, that you understand how important this is to me.

My career has always been my top priority, and I believe you have known that facet of my personality all along Vedant. If you could love me still, unlike all other guys who always told me I was too ambitious for my own good, I know you have it in you to support me too.

It's been MONTHS Vedant; and we barely get to talk. When we do manage to talk, we fight. I hate it.

You know through all those tough months of coaching and office along with my ever, over-bearing family the only thing that kept me sane was YOU. I need you, I need your support with this course Vedant. Even though I hate putting it like this, I have nobody else to confide in.

Please, don't stop loving me for this. I'm too deep into us to be able to bear to have you gone.

Don't make me choose. Because you and I know you'll always be my number one.

Happy Birthday my love :)

~Meera

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It had taken some weeks for Vedant to understand why the strongest of couples ended miserably after giving long distance a try. It wasn't insecurity, it wasn't jealousy or even lack of trust. Well not for him and Meera anyway.

It was basically the absence of her in his life that seemed to make every new day torturously slow for him.

His guy friends feared stable relationships, and basically fled from the concept of marriage. But he; for the life of him; didn't understand what was so intimidating about having one woman; every single day for the rest of your life.

That actually didn't sound like such a bad concept to him.

But every time his thoughts would tread towards the arena he'd never dared mention to Meera, he'd take deep breaths, force his trail of thoughts elsewhere and just forget about whatever he'd been thinking.

No, Meera wasn't against the idea of marrying him. She was against the idea of marriage in general. And she'd made it imminently clear on various occasions.

They'd dated quite steadily for around five years now. Sometime around the previous year, when Vedant had considered the time right to introduce Meera to his parents; he'd very subtly offered to take her to his cousin's wedding that was to take place.

She had vehemently turned his offer down saying; "Oh no no. Your family will literally pounce on us about our wedding!"

He'd explained saying his parents already knew about them, but she'd retorted, "I'm not worried about your immediate family Vedant; I'm sure they'll be understanding. It's the distant family that scares me."

Understanding about what? So what if they'd have to discuss marriage? He'd wanted to ask, but didn't seem to find the courage in him to go ahead with it.

And just like that; the matter had been dropped entirely.

Sometime around their fourth anniversary, she'd met his parents for a low-key dinner at their place on her own accord. Even though his Father hadn't said anything to his face, he knew Meera had impressed him to no end.

Then on, Meera had become a name very openly pronounced in the household.

"So..." his boss sighed dramatically like he always did before a major announcement. "...The outstation audit is here." Nothing very surprising.

Mr. Ahluwalia smiled an all blown grin that narrowed his eyes to slits. He leaned forward to grab the AC remote from the table and lowered the temperature to the least of eighteen degrees.

"Stupid company doesn't even have an AC that goes down to sixteen degrees." He muttered all too loudly, as he dabbed at the sweat trickling down his Sird turban with his handkerchief.

"Toh main ki daseya..." he started, and then stopped, ashamed of his vernacular slipping out of his tongue in an official meeting. "I apologize."

Everybody on the team smiled; unfazed by his daily mess up.

He was a man brought up in Amritsar, begrudgingly inhabiting Mumbai. At twenty-two, he'd been offered a senior position in this company. He'd packed his bags and arrived in the City of Dreams without so much as a second thought. Only to realize a few years later, how much he missed his hometown.

By then however, he'd married a woman he'd fallen for from his MBA classes. A hasty marriage had let them to miss out on the trivial, and yet significant discussion about Sir's desire to move back to the North; Delhi if not Amritsar and Miss. Gandhi; now Mrs. Ahluwalia's insistence that she would never move out of Mumbai; out of Walkeshwar to be precise.

In the war between love for wife and rootage, love won; and came an end to this discussion; for good.

"Our outstation audit will be in Delhi this time. It's a new client. Hence, the best team has to be sent...." Mr. Ahluwalia went on and on, but Vedant's mind had already switched off the alert part of his brain.

Delhi! Did he just say Delhi?

He couldn't contain his excitement within. He needed to call Meera. He needed to call her NOW! But he couldn't leave a meeting just like that.

"How long should that take Sir?" asked Emraan; a young first-year Article; extremely eager to learn.

Sir laughed, "Should take two weeks." But everybody knew what that meant. It could take a month, even more, if the workload increased.

Meera was having a rough day so far. She'd burnt her finger while cooking some sabzi for herself, her blowdryer had stopped working and she even missed her regular bus to college; only to reach fifteen minutes late for the class she loved most.

If that wasn't enough, their professor decided to take a small test on all topics that had been covered so far without announcement.

She knew she would pass, but then that wasn't why she'd decided to pursue an MBA! She'd been in the middle of discussing some class notes with a friend when her phone first rang.

It was a very unusual time for Vedant to call. Wasn't he supposed to be in the office right now?

"Vedant?" she asked doubtfully, without her usual 'hello'.

"Meera."

Even across the phone, she could deduce a smile when he uttered her name. This had never ceased to warm her insides. To her, her simple and traditional name sounded so much more exotic...more beautiful on his tongue.

"Yes, Vedant. What's up?" As much as she would've loved to chitchat with him, she was aware of her next lecture right across the other end of the campus in the next fifteen minutes.

"So my outstation Audit starts coming Monday." He'd obviously noted the haste in her tone, and without minding had guessed she was in college.

"Oh." She huffed. Is that why he called? "Um...where is it?" she found herself ask, not quite sure why this piece of news couldn't wait until night when they would Skype.

"Take a wild guess." His voice sounded jumpier than ever, like a young boy of twenty suddenly. Like she'd seen him for the first time when she'd developed a crush on him.

And she suddenly knew what all of this could mean.

"Delhi?" her voice was a mere whisper, almost as if she was afraid of it being otherwise.

"Yes!" he exclaimed instantly.

Meera pressed her lips shut tightly to control the urge of screaming with excitement.

"Meera? You there?"

"Yeah." She cleared her throat. "You're...you're not joking, are you?"

"I wouldn't dream of joking about this Meera."

She could only let out a sigh.

"Can I fly in a day early so that we can get some time to ourselves before this audit begins?"

Did he just ask me that?

"You...A day? Saturday. Come on Saturday!" she fumbled for words. And then, "If you can, of course."

On the other end of the phone, he was grinning as wide as ever. "Okay."

He said okay! I'll be seeing Vedant in five days!

"See you then."

She nodded with a smile, "See you."

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A/N:

I know I may have made some generalizations in this chapter but I promise I don't mean to offend any culture. I just feel like the more I describe my characters' backgrounds, the more real they seem to readers and hence, the specifics.

I hope you guys understand

... continued The Big Swap - Part 25